Wireless networking has emerged as an inexpensive technology for connecting multiple users with other users within a wireless coverage area of a network as well as providing connections to other external networks, such as the World Wide Web. An exemplary wireless network may be a wireless local area network (“WLAN”) for providing radio communication between several devices using at least one wireless protocol, such as those of the 802.1x standards. A wireless local area network may use radio frequency (“RF”) communication channels to communicate between multiple mobile units (“MUs”) and multiple stationary access points. The access points or access ports (both may be referred to herein as “APs”) of the WLAN may be positioned in various location of the environment to prevent any coverage gaps of the wireless coverage.
In order to standardize the communications over a WLAN, the MUs may be equipped with wireless fidelity (“Wi-Fi”) capabilities, such as compatibility with one or more of the various 802.11x standards (i.e., 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, etc.). The 802.11 standards are a set of Wi-Fi standards established by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (“IEEE”) in order to govern systems for wireless networking transmissions.
An enterprise may deploy a wireless network in order to provide wireless coverage throughout the operating environment of the enterprise. A WLAN offers the enterprise several benefits ranging from cost efficiency to flexibility in installation and scaling. Furthermore, an operating environment having a limited wired infrastructure may easily be converted into WLAN, offering mobility to compatible wireless devices throughout the environment. However, while WLAN architectures may provide several units with network connectivity, issues such as network security and access control may compromise the privacy and safety of the data and/or users of the network. Since the signal transmitted by the AP may be intercepted by unknown and/or unwanted MUs, these unwanted MUs may be provided with unauthorized access to the WLAN.